Its tough to get a spirited discussion of apathy since those feeling it aren't here posting. imo:

I'm not sure that "worlds waiting to fill" causes apathy, it probably causes frustration, and hieghtens one's anticipation of getting started. If owners drop from one they probably move to another world.

I'd guess that the lack of significant new features is a significant contributor to veteran owners' reducing their number of teams or dropping out completely.

At first its about proving you can win. Then its about trying different strategies, ballparks and worlds. Without updates it becomes the same old same old.

The customer service issue, particularly the lack of response in the Suggestion Thread has alienated the customer base.

If MikeT23 took a leave of absence from the forums for 6 months, there would be a drastic drop in discussions in the forums and participation in HBD would plumet!

Posted by bigal888 on 1/2/2013 1:29:00 PM (view original):no it doesn't! not like this! this is EXTREME apathy!

This response also happens every time I say "It happens every year".

At the end of the day, good worlds fill quickly, decent worlds fill at a moderate rate and poor worlds fill slowly.

And before anyone says "But my world is good and we've been waiting 3 months!!!!", you should re-evaluate your definition of "good". You may enjoy it immensely but there's a good chance that there's a clear line between the haves/have nots or your commish isn't active enough with filling your world. I've said, time and time again, that you can't start looking for replacements when the WS starts. Say you have 5 openings. In the first week, he finds 2. So a week passes and you have 3. Users look at that and think "Why do they have 3 openings a week after rolling? What's wrong with this world?" Another week passes and someone drops out. Now, two weeks after roll, you have 4 openings. So users look at that.

Posted by bigal888 on 1/2/2013 1:29:00 PM (view original):no it doesn't! not like this! this is EXTREME apathy!

This response also happens every time I say "It happens every year".

At the end of the day, good worlds fill quickly, decent worlds fill at a moderate rate and poor worlds fill slowly.

And before anyone says "But my world is good and we've been waiting 3 months!!!!", you should re-evaluate your definition of "good". You may enjoy it immensely but there's a good chance that there's a clear line between the haves/have nots or your commish isn't active enough with filling your world. I've said, time and time again, that you can't start looking for replacements when the WS starts. Say you have 5 openings. In the first week, he finds 2. So a week passes and you have 3. Users look at that and think "Why do they have 3 openings a week after rolling? What's wrong with this world?" Another week passes and someone drops out. Now, two weeks after roll, you have 4 openings. So users look at that.

Also, things always appear worse at present than compared to the past. We tend to forget bad times fairly easily for some reason. It happens everywhere in life...how many times have you heard someone say "this is the worst winter ever!" or "so and so is the worst center fielder ever!" except in 20 years the opinion softens some and people forget all the other terrible center fielders.

I will admit that I tend not to see the tough times. Every world I'm in fills quickly. Even Greenberg, the TWC public world, rolled in 8-10 days with 9 openings. Boston Tea Party went 4 months before I took the last spot last December. We're in the 2nd round of playoffs in my 4th season now. We couldn't have set more than a week in any season since then. I just don't see a difference now than from a year ago.

During Days 11 thru 22 from now, there are *32* worlds rolling over (including 11 on days 20 and 21 alone).

This will mark the conclusion of the last WIS promotion that prompted everyone to create aliases and add teams on the cheap. I fully expect almost all of those cheapo teams to be bailed on, and the total number of openings will exceed 200, maybe hitting 250 total.

If WIS was going to spend any money at all on HBD, setting up a system to move a team for one world to another would solve one of the biggest problems.

It's either that or drop the price to play the game to $1 a season. I doubt that's enough income to keep the game going.

The history of a merged world be a jumble. My bet is most people would rather be playing the game with their team than worrying about the MVP award from 6 seasons ago or future HOF voting. And non-merged worlds would have one more reason to consider themselves superior.

I'm suggesting a way to move a team into any other world (that agrees to take teams).

Easier to get done than merging 2 worlds. Merging requires 2 words to be no more than half full. That happens but it is rare.

Worlds with more than a certain number of openings vote among existing owners from the previous season. Stay together & wait it out, or agree to disband & take team to different world. Majority wins.

Any world with openings gets to vote to allow teams to merge in or wait it out. Majority wins.

Could allow existing owners to vote yes or no before allowing a team in. That would probably be the end of any team that aliased or ripped off newbies in trades to create a mega-team. IMO, an OK tradeoff to get worlds filled faster.

History could or could not be lost. There have been lots of real world league mergers where the history was kept. WIS could figure out a way to deal with it.